US Diplomatic Bullying of Armenia & Willful Blindness of Turkish Abuses (Part II)
In our previous article, I made, on behalf of our editorial team the following statement:
“I hope readers, journalists, and academics in Armenia and the diaspora will launch a well concerted effort to silence lies destined to tarnish the reputation of a government and undermine the destiny of Artsakh.”
Out of 57 emails addressed to Armenian journalists established in major cities/capitals worldwide, only one person-Mr. Jean Eckian graciously accepted the challenge to take a practical step, and with the existing means at his disposal mobilized his readers in the Armenian community of France, and exposed them to the realities of anti-Armenian Azeri propaganda efforts in Europe, by publishing a French translation of our article. To Mr. Jean Eckian we owe a big debt of gratitude, and hats off for his determination to extend a helping hand to protect the reputation of Armenia and Artsakh.
The poor reaction displayed by Armenian journalists forced us also to question the notion of “Pan-Armenian” solidarity. More than a concrete reality, it seems to be nothing but a comforting illusion that we desperately want to cling to, instead of admitting the bitter truth: at best it is non-existent, at worse it is a distant dream that we may never materialize.
We also pointed out to our readers that Mr. Basil Coronakis (editor and CEO of New Europe Group) makes the following claim on the website where Ms. Anita Haugen's article was published: “We investigate, involve, inspire and give the floor to as many voices as possible. We fight for transparency, democracy, dialogue, and debate and we believe in a world of cooperation. We believe in a world of peace. We believe in a world of freedom.” https://www.neweurope.eu/about-us/
We asserted to Mr. Coronakis that if his claims of transparency, dialogue, and balanced debate were sincere, he would not hesitate to give the floor/the podium to an unflattering voice (ours) that challenges the highly biased views of Ms. Haugen hereafter referred to as AH. We will send a copy of our rebuttal to Mr. Coronakis, and though we seriously doubt that he will publish our interpretation of events, we promise to keep our readers informed and we pledge to publish his comments/reply without any attempt to edit the views expressed.
Let us dissect the key claims and the warped logic used by AH to lend a flimsy credibility to her article:
AH: “Iran’s economic situation has gone from bad to worse with no end in sight. Since the onset of sanctions, re-imposed by the Trump administration in 2018...”
NO. Iran's economy did not go from bad to worse. According to figures released by the Worldbank “Iran’s real GDP is estimated to grow by 1.7% in 2020/21. Economic recovery in Q3 and Q4-2020 was stronger than expected, both in the oil and non-oil sectors, with the non-oil sector’s rebound driven by manufacturing, as exchange rate depreciation made domestic production more competitive.”
The modest growth was achieved despite the heavy toll imposed by COVID19 on Iran, and despite deliberate attempts by many Western democracies to sabotage the Iranian economy. All those who were agitating for tougher sanctions buried their heads in the sand, and refused to see what their most trustworthy ally-Turkey has been doing for well over two decades to contribute to the economic growth of Iran.
AH: “According to initial media coverage, a former congressman from Indiana, Dan Barton, has raised the alarm of the increased financial activity taking place between the Islamic Republic and its northern neighbor, Armenia.”
We clarified in our previous article that NO such person ever existed in The US Congress. There was a congressman named Joe Linus Barton (born September 15, 1949) who represented Texas' 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 2019.
The Congressman who represented Indiana up until 2013 was Danny Lee Burton (born June 21, 1938), a.k.a Dan Burton (not Barton) who enjoyed the largesse of President Aliyev, and on multiple occasions received generous Azerbaijani financial contributions made to his electoral campaigns via The Azerbaijan America Alliance. In February 13, 2013 the Azerbaijan America Alliance appointed Mr. Burton as Chairman of the organization.
AH: “Barton has long had an interest in the Caucasus and its importance for American policy. He was a strong proponent of US diplomacy efforts in the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis in the early 2000s and remained strongly committed to monitoring the area and bringing attention to its vital geopolitical issues.”
Former Congressman Burton, as a loyal lackey of petro dictator Aliyev, was a strong proponent of US diplomacy efforts in Nagorno Karabakh because he desperately wanted to sell to US diplomats the narrative ”... that Nagorno Karabakh has never been a part of Armenia” and all US diplomatic efforts should be focused on blessing and legitimizing the arrangements made by the bank robber Joseph Stalin who secured Azeri loyalty to Moscow by gifting Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan.
AH: “Both the US and EU implemented tough restrictions, sanctioning dozens of Iranian banks and other firms, making it increasingly difficult for Tehran to conduct business in dollars and euros.”
As long as Erdogan and his henchmen in Turkey were the subjects of generous rewards bestowed upon them by The Ayatollahs in Tehran, it was never difficult for Iran to have access to gold, US Dollars, and Euros.
The list of Iranian enablers is not limited to Turkey. Following The US invasion of Iraq, and the substantial military assistance offered by Iran to Shiit militias, Iraq managed to channel under the watchful eyes of The US Army, billions of US dollars to the coffers of The Ayatollahs in Tehran. Constituting almost 60% of the Iraqi population, The US Army Command did not want to start a bloodbath against 24,000,000 Iraqi Shiits who were openly loyal to their religious compatriots in Iran, rather than the so-called “Liberator” determined to sow death and destruction in the name of spreading “Democracy”.
The same phenomenon repeated itself in Afghanistan. Shiits make up almost 15% of Afghanistan's population (6,000,000). Pretending to be close allies of The US, Shiit leaders, again under the watchful eyes of a US Army desperate to buy a commodity called “Loyalty”, satisfied their greed to the utmost by running an elaborate money exchange networks designed to redirect valuable US currency to Iran. Shiit Afghani leaders often used banks and investment companies located in Dubai and UAE. The two Arab regimes have developed close and extensive working relationships with The US Intelligence community, but somehow failed to notice the elaborate schemes benefiting the Iranian economy.
Here is an excerpt from an article published by Reuters, about huge amounts of cash in US Dollars smuggled to Iran ($1 billion dollars a month) from different bordering countries:
Western diplomatic and intelligence sources confirmed that “ the cash was hand-carried by couriers on flights from Dubai or Turkey, or brought across the Iraq-Iran border. Before it reached Iran, the cash was passed through money changers and front companies in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq, they added.”
No matter how many countries we add to the long list of Iran's enablers, Turkey remains in a league of its own. Since 2010 many journalists covering events and developments in the Middle East, tried to warn Western Intelligence Agencies about the Turkish refusal to comply with any sanctions or trade restrictions imposed on Iran.Turkish defiance was not an empty threat. High volume of smuggling activities were conducted under the watchful eyes of Turkish Border Guards and Turkish Intelligence with the full blessing of Ankara.
In the early days of 2010, following a Turkish vote against UN sanctions imposed on Iran, many Iranian merchants/Quds Force Operatives had established legitimate trade companies in the Turkish border town of Yuksekova where“One Iranian businessman says he can transfer anything overnight to Iran across the mountains, even a machine as big as a bulldozer.”
Iranian operatives did not confine their activities to the border towns of Turkey. In the heart of Istanbul, and more specifically in a district known as Aksaray, known to locals as “Little Tehran”, many Iranian operatives/businessmen opened “cargo houses” or warehousing facilities prior to 2010. An Iranian operative/businessman known as Mahmud confirmed that just 10% of his goods go to Iran legally. When asked about the nature of the goods he smuggles to Iran from Turkey, Mahmud replied:
"I export strategic equipment, like aeroplane parts, to Iran...Those companies would never sell their goods to Iran - because they have American investors...How do we do it? A company like mine - we buy the equipment under the name of a Turkish company and the paperwork shows the destination is another country. But in fact the load ends up in Iran. We charge them 80% over the market price, but they need it - so they pay."
In November 2018 the Neo-Ottoman Sultan Erdogan proudly displayed his disgust of US sanctions imposed on Iran by classifiying America's policy as an “Imperialist” maneuver and reiterating to the US State Department the following statement:
“We do not want to live in an imperialist world...We will absolutely not abide by such sanctions.”
Sultan Erdogan's defiance of The US sanctions was not strictly based on greed, necessity to buy Iranian gas to provide heat to Turkish dwellings, or make his rich cronies richer. His policy was an integral part of his hatred of The US/NATO in particular and European democracies in general.
His personal hatred was well known to all Western Intelligence agencies, and they all reported to their political leaderships the following promise he made (then Prime Minister) to his inner circle, discovered during an extensive Turkish investigation (2011) probing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force activities in Turkey:
“When I get a chance, I know what to do with NATO, Europe and Israel. I’m going to f**k their mothers. NATO and the US are as terrorist as Israel”
It is nothing but a disgrace for The US Embassy in Yerevan to release to the Armenian Media the following communication:
We look to Armenia as an important partner of the United States in the region. As such, we have made it clear to the Armenian government and the private sector that we expect Armenia to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the international community and to halt connections with Iran that support its efforts to destabilize the region and support terrorism...We send the same message to all of our partners about cooperation with Iran.”
To the US Embassy in Yerevan, and the hord of US experts peddling to The US Administration grandiose plans to blackmail Iran we say:
First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:5 (NKJV)
US hypocrites-the gurus of American Foreign Policy and the Pundits of The US Intelligence Community, are extremely comfortable with the billions Turkey is funnelling to Iran, but for some strange reason they are extremely exasperated by the few million dollars of trade between Armenia and Iran. If America is determined to send the same message to all those who “Cooperate” with Iran, can The US State Department clarify, at its earliest convenience, when Sultan Erdogan will receive a stern warning to cease and desist from boosting the economic growth of Iran?
While working on a plan of action to put an end to Erdogan's unacceptable behavior, can The US State Department advise the Armenian media about their plans to sanction Chinese banks following the very recent Chinese Government's announcement to invest $400 billion US Dollars in The Iranian Economy during the next 25 years?
We strongly doubt that US decision makers have the audacity to challenge Sultan Erdogan or The Chinese Communist Party. Their audacity is strictly reserved to bullying small countries like Armenia.
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Notes & References
Turkish Intelligence and Turkish smugglers were not strictly interested in channelling foreign currency to Iran. ISIS fighters relied heavily on “Turkey's Jihady Highway” to cross the Turkish-Syrian crossing points for $25 a person. For more details read:
“All It Takes To Cross From Turkey To ISIS-Held Syria Is $25 “
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To develop a solid understanding of the technical barriers, and the race pursued by the Iranian regime to modernize the Air Force of The Islamic Republic of Iran consult the following article:
“Air Force Modernization”
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/airforce-modernization.htm
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For a list of Iranian operatives, the front companies they used, Turkish support from the highest levels of government, and the US investigations that dismantled the smuggling networks that redirected to Iran from international markets valuable aircraft parts, read:
“Aircraft Spare Parts Acquisition”
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/airforce-tech.htm
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Introductory paragraph of a lengthy article titled:
“How Iran Is Taking Ancient F-14 Tomcats and Making Them Better “
For the next five decades, the United States would do everything in its power — short of war — to ground the ayatollah’s Tomcats. But the Americans failed. Through a combination of engineering ingenuity and audacious espionage, Iran kept its F-14s in working order — and even improved them. The swing-wing fighters took to the air in several conflicts and even occasionally confronted American planes.
https://news.yahoo.com/iran-taking-ancient-f-14-094700813.html
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Introductory paragraph of an in-depth analysis of Turkish efforts to sabotage US sanctions imposed on Iran:
“The Case of Reza Zarrab”
Corruption has become an instrument of policy and rule in the hands of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), undermining decades of U.S.-Turkish cooperation in the realms of international law enforcement and counter-terrorism. Against this backdrop, the Bipartisan Policy Center has begun a new series examining the causes and consequences of corruption in Turkey and the impact on U.S. interests in the Middle East and the world.
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/the-case-of-reza-zarrab/
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